Can you feel the love tonight?
by Pennethril the Tale Weaver
Summary: L/J Sirius is jealous that James spends more time with Lily than he does with the Marauders! So Sirius, Remus and Peter have decided to ruin James' date and steal him back Timon and Pumbaa style! **NEW PEN NAME** Used to be The Songfictionistas


**Disclaimer: Harry Potter and Harry Potter related copyrights? We own none.**

"Prongs!" shouted Sirius as he slid to a stop in front of the table in the library where James and Lily were studying. "Mrs. Prongs," he said nodding his head in acknowledgement at his best friend's girlfriend.

Lily shook her head in amusement and said, "Hello Sirius."

"Prongs! We just came up with the best prank for tonight! It's perfect- you don't have any patrolling, Quidditch practices, detentions, Heads' meetings, you just went out with Lily last night, so you don't have a date and it's a Saturday so you don't have to do any homework and N.E.W.T.S. are months away. I think I've covered all your recent excuses… so, anyways you can come with us to pull it off! And don't give me any of your 'I'm the Head Boy now Padfoot' crap because this one is foolproof! There's no way we can get caught- so come on! Get your stuff and let's go!"

"Sorry, no can do Padfoot, I do actually have a date. We kind of planned it last night, and I promised, so…." James said awkwardly.

"Oh, ok, yeah, it's cool. It's just we haven't really played any pranks or really spent any time together since you started dating Lily. And, I- we- me, Remus and Peter, are feeling kind of left out. But, it's cool. You go and have fun with your Mrs. Prongs," Sirius said dramatically.

"Padfoot-," James started.

"No! I don't want your excuses! Go, take Mrs. Prong on a date, but just remember who your true friends are!" Sirius said with flair before turning on his heel and rushing out of the library.

James sighed, "He's so dramatic."

"James," said Lily as she squeezed his hand under the table. "We can go out some other time. Sirius is right, you need to spend time with your friends, not just me."

"He's just being dramatic; I spend loads of time with them. Sirius just isn't used to me having to divide my time at all. So don't worry your pretty little head about it; let's finish going over this transfiguration assignment and then we can go take a walk around the lake."

"But James, I feel badly for taking up so much of your time. I think that Sirius really misses you," said Lily sincerely.

"I'll help him with his prank tomorrow."

Lily looked at him doubtfully, so James said, "No really I will. We'll go do something that you wouldn't approve of, perhaps something slightly less than legal, and then things will be fine again. He just needs a little attention."

Lily sighed and said, "Ok, but just make sure that I don't end up tied up in an abandoned classroom so that you'll be forced to spend more time with your friends. I wouldn't put it past Sirius you know."

"Don't worry about it, Lily, he wouldn't-… actually, yeah he would. But still don't worry about it; Remus wouldn't let him do it. Actually... he would probably leave Remus tied up in the room with you for trying to oppose him…." James did not reassure her.

"I still think you should spend a little more time with your friends," Lily muttered.

"GUYS!" Sirius whined as he barged into the dorm.

"What is it Sirius?" Remus asked, not looking up from the book he was scanning.

"You can stop planning for the prank; we can't do it- James isn't coming," Sirius said sulkily, falling onto his bed to stare at the ceiling.

"Why not?" Peter asked.

"Because Mr. Prongs is taking Mrs. Prong on a date. Again!" Sirius said.

"That's like the fourth time this week!" complained Peter as he threw down the stuff he had been preparing. He was very disappointed that the prank was canceled; he had actually thought it up himself.

"Guys, you knew that this would happen when they started dating," said Remus reasonably. "Prongs has other responsibilities now; he can't just go off playing pranks whenever anymore."

"You make it sound like he's married or something. It's so depressing," said Sirius sullenly. Then he sat up abruptly and said, "Merlin! What if they do get married?! If he's like this when they are just dating, imagine what it will be like if they're married!"

"Yeah, we only see him now because we live in the same dorm, if he's not living with us we'll never see him!" cried Peter.

"Wormtail's right! We can't let this go on! We have to squash their relationship before it goes any farther! And I have just the plan!" exclaimed Sirius.

"Sirius, is this really necessary?" Remus asked wearily.

"Of course it is! Now, what we're going to do is to follow them around, oh by the way, their date is a _walk around the lake- _see their relationship is already half-way down the tubes- and we, like, mess with their heads and stuff, like make strange noises, and throw stuff at her and then push her in the lake!" Sirius explained excitedly.

"And you plan on doing this… how, exactly?" Remus asked skeptically. "I think they would notice you following them around, making strange noises, throwing things at Lily and then picking her up throwing her into the lake."

"Simple. James' Invisibility Cloak; he'll never know we're there," Sirius said.

"But still," protested Remus. "How could James not notice his girlfriend being suddenly lifted up and carried away? He's a pretty clever guy."

"Details, details, Moony," said Sirius waving Remus' concerns away. "Come on, let's get this show on the road; they've probably left the library by now."

"But won't they come here to drop off their bags?" Remus pointed out.

"Oh yeah, so we sit and wait," said Sirius with a wolf-like grin.

"Now what do we do?" asked Peter as the minutes passed in silence.

"We're still sitting and waiting!" yelled Sirius, irritated by Peter's interruption.

"Now what?" asked Peter three minutes later.

"Peter, it's been three minutes; we are still sitting and waiting," Remus said, "by order of Overlord Padfoot, controller of all our lives."

"That's right!" Sirius agreed from where he was sitting and waiting.

"Oh…" Peter said.

It was then that James walked into the room, singing, yes singing, and turned on the light.

As soon as the light turned on, the other three Marauders, who had been sitting in the dark, hissed and dove for the nearest object to shield their eyes saying, "The light, and the happiness! They burn!"

"James! Shut up!" bellowed Remus, clutching his ears.

"I can't take the happy!" shouted Sirius, burying his face in a pillow.

"Whoa, guys, what's wrong with you?" James asked, pausing in his very bad rendition of 'Wouldn't it be nice' by the Beach Boys.

"Why must you be so bloody happy?!" asked Sirius angrily.

James shrugged, "I'm just happy I guess."

"He's in looove!" said Peter in a sing-song voice.

James thought about it for a moment and then said with a huge grin, "Yeah, I suppose I am. See you blokes later!"

After James had left, Sirius turned to his partners-in-crime and said, "It's worse than we thought guys! We had better bring all the dung-bombs."

"NOT THE DUNG-BOMBS!" shouted Remus and Peter in harmony.

"I'm 'fraid so gents," said Sirius seriously. "We have to snap James out of this before he gets any more ideas about… commitment."

"Oh dear, Pads, not _commitment_," Remus said sarcastically, while grabbing three dung-bombs and handing them to Peter.

"Why do _I_ have to hold them? Remember what happened last time?" Peter said.

"Yeah, and why are you only grabbing _three_ dung-bombs? I think we need a bit more then _three_," Sirius asked with an expectant look.

Remus sighed, took the dung-bombs back from Peter and grabbed two more.

"I _guess_ five will do…." Sirius sighed.

"Okay, can we please get this over with?" Remus asked.

"Sure, let me find his Cloak…" Sirius said, rummaging in the area around James' bed.

Ten minutes later, Sirius was still tearing apart James' part of the room; Remus had resorted to completing a couple of essays, and Peter had found some chocolate which he was now enjoying while watching Sirius from the safety of his own bed.

"So, Pads, find it yet?" Remus asked.

Sirius whirled around and narrowing his eyes asked, "What do you know that I don't?!"

"Only that on Saturdays Prongs always keeps the cloak underneath his pillow," replied Remus as he added the finishing touches to his essay.

"I checked… no wait I didn't check there," Sirius mumbled to himself.

Then he went over to the pillow and lifted it up, revealing not an invisibility cloak but a brown bra with pink, blue and green polka dots.

"Ummm, mates," said Sirius as he lifted the feminine item with a nearby quill and kept it as far away from his person as possible.

Remus looked up from his essay and gasped, and Peter fell off of the edge of his bed.

"What is that?" asked Peter as he crawled back up onto his bed.

Due to his shock, Remus was not able to answer.

Sirius looked disgusted. "When was Lily in our dorm?!"

"And how did we not notice?" asked Remus.

"Maybe it was that time the three of us had detention last week…" suggested Peter.

"Prongs was there that time," said Remus.

"Maybe he nicked it like the snitch?" Peter tried.

"Why would he do that?" countered Sirius.

"Plus, we still haven't figured out how to get to the girls' dorm," said Remus.

"Maybe she gave it to him?" Peter offered.

"Yeah that's it," said Remus sarcastically. "She gave her bra to him as a two month anniversary present."

"Now, what to do with it," pondered Sirius, studying the bra.

"Um, how 'bout we put it back and pretend it never existed?" Peter suggested.

"Um… how 'bout you deal with it," Sirius said before flinging the bra at Peter, who shrieked as it came toward his head. He started screeching and flinging his arms around doing nothing to rectify the situation of having a bra on his head.

Remus calmly walked over to him, while Sirius fell down laughing, picked the bra off of Peter's head, folded it and placed it back under James' pillow, saying, "We'll just put that back where we found it."

"Are you kidding?" Sirius asked incredulously as he took the bra back from under James' pillow and put it in the bag. "We're taking it with us."

"Um, why are we taking it with us?" Remus asked, as Peter calmed himself down.

"Because it will be part of out brilliant plan!" Sirius exclaimed.

"This is not going to end well, but it sounds like fun, so I'll go along with it," stated Remus.

"That's the spirit Moony!" said Sirius, putting an arm around Remus' shoulder and leading him out of the dorm. "Bring the stuff Wormtail!"

"Will do!" Peter called after them as he scrambled to grab the bag that held the bra and other stuff Sirius had picked out.

Meanwhile, Lily and James had completed their walk around the lake and had settled beneath a tree near the shore to watch the stars and enjoy each other's company.

"So, most embarrassing childhood moment?" asked Lily as she lay cuddled up next to James, his arm around her.

"That's a tough one," said James as he paused momentarily in twirling his girlfriend's hair around his fingers. "I suppose it was the time I…"

But James didn't get any farther, because all of the sudden a pile of snow fell on top of both James and Lily, completely burying them. The oddest part was that it was the middle of March and the weather was warm enough so that neither James nor Lily was wearing more than long sleeved shirts.

After a bit of struggling, James and Lily emerged from the isolated snow drift laughing and choking on snow.

"That was odd," said Lily smiling.

In the tree, Sirius smirked and thought to himself, _You ain't seen nothing yet!_

"Odder things have happened," said James, who, even though he was quite clever, had not yet caught onto his friends' plan.

Lily nodded in agreement, and vanished the snow, leaving dry ground once more.

As they sat back down, Lily said, "James, I'm cold."

"Well, then, I'll just have to warm you up won't I?" James replied, pulling her closer to him and leaning down for a kiss.

During this exchange, up in the tree, the other three Marauders were in varying states of disgust. Sirius was appalled that his snow drift didn't succeed in making Lily angry, but instead brought the two closer together. Remus was starting to twitch from all the fluffiness, and Peter was gagging on the sweetness his icon of masculinity was displaying.

Then, something dropped into Sirius' lap; it was an acorn. His face lit up, and he motioned for Remus and Peter to watch as he dropped the acorn which bounced off of James' head with a satisfying clunk. Sadly, James did not pull away from Lily like Sirius had expected, but merely, he ran his hand over his head, and resumed kissing Lily like nothing had happened. Sirius grabbed another acorn and dropped it on James' head. This time, it succeeded in breaking the two apart; James looked up into the tree to find the source of the rogue acorns.

"What's wrong James?" Lily asked, looking up also.

"Er, nothing," James said with a shake of his head. As he was leaning in to kiss Lily again, another acorn dropped out of the tree, but this time it hit Lily on the head.

"Ow, what the heck?" she said, looking up.

"Did you get hit with an acorn too?" James asked.

"Yeah, that is really weird," Lily said.

"Anyways, where were we?" asked James suavely as he leaned towards Lily again.

This time, he didn't quite make it to his destination because both he and Lily were startled by a very loud howling noise that sounded as if it was very close by.

"What was that?" asked Lily with a hint of fear in her voice. Although she had a wand and was in the company of a very muscular and capable wizard, being on the grounds of Hogwarts in the dark where no one would find your body until the next day, if they did at all, was very scary.

"Don't worry about it; look it's not even a full moon or anything," said James. "And we both have our wands."

"You're right," said Lily as she snuggled closer to James and ran her fingertips lightly up and down his arm. "And besides, I have my big, strong boyfriend here to protect me."

James was about to reply to that, but at that moment, Sirius had nudged Peter to make a sound; it was very loud quacking.

This time, James and Lily just started laughing.

"I don't know what's going on, but it's kind of amusing," said Lily.

"That's what we get for going to a school full of magic," said James with a grin. He still didn't know what was going on, but if Lily wasn't getting angry then neither would he. In fact, the night's odd events had only served to bring them closer together, which he appreciated.

Sirius, on the other hand, was close to furious. Why wasn't his plan working? He was going to have to step it up a notch. So, he pulled out the bra from the bag Peter had carried with them, and with a grin at his mates in the tree, he dropped the bra onto the unsuspecting couple below.

Unlike the noises and the acorns, James could not just brush off the fact that a bra had landed on his head.

Gingerly, Lily reached up and took the bra off of her boyfriend's head and sitting up said, "What in the world? Last time I checked, acorns fell from trees, but not bras."

James slowly put his hand up on top of his head to make sure that there wasn't anything else up there that wasn't supposed to be. Luckily, all he found was his messy hair.

"Should I even bother asking?" asked Lily as she turned to look at James, who was still reclining against the tree and now looking up into its branches.

"You could, but I'm not sure that I could answer," said James absently. He was still looking up at the tree, but luckily for Sirius, he couldn't see any of the Marauders or their supplies in the darkness.

"Okay, Sirius, we've been lucky so far, but we're going to only keep James and Lily in the dark, figuratively, for so long," Remus hissed.

"Relax, Moony, he knows nothing," Sirius reassured him. "Hey, hey, watch this…" Sirius made to drop a dung-bomb in the middle of James and Lily's little party, but before he could, Remus took it and dropped it on the other side of the tree saying, "Let's not leave anymore evidence than we have already; James knows our brand of dung-bombs."

"I guess… At least they'll still be able to smell it," Sirius muttered.

"Yes, but so will we," Peter said, holding his nose as the lovely aroma of dung-bomb wafted up towards them.

Down below them, the scent was stronger, and James and Lily were having a wonderful time of coughing and spluttering at the smell.

"Ah, what is that?" Lily asked.

"It smells like… It smells like dung-bombs, but I don't know why we'd be smelling dung-bombs out here… Unless… Nah, he wouldn't, would he?" James mused. "Come on, let's get out from under this tree; I think it's out to get us."

James pulled Lily closer to the shore of the lake, where they stood watching the calm waters and the reflection of the half moon. They stood like that for a while, with Lily resting her head on James' shoulder, and James wrapping his arms around her.

"Okay, this is ridiculous!" Sirius said getting frustrated. "Peter, time for that _thing _we talked about," he said mysteriously.

"Sirius what did you do?" Remus asked suspiciously.

"Just sit back and watch the show, my dear Moony," Sirius said, leaning back against the trunk of the tree as Peter disappeared to the base of the tree.

A moment later, Peter was no longer standing there, but a rat was seen scampering towards the lovesick couple by the lake. Remus was pretty sure that he saw his life flash before his eyes as he saw the rat climb right up the back of Lily's legs, over her bottom, up her back and onto her shoulder.

At first Lily didn't notice the motion of the rat because she was absorbed in the moment, but who could ignore a rather pudgy rat on your shoulder rubbing his whiskers against your face?

Lily shrieked loudly, right into James' ear, and jumped back, flinging the rat from its perch and onto the front of Lily's shirt. Because she was so shocked, Lily was not able to do anything but stand as still as a muggle statue and flail her arms while shrieking and looking down at the rat that was clinging onto her shirt for dear life.

James was also looking on in horror; it wasn't like he could save Lily and escape the event unscathed. He was in a very perilous position. Finally, James couldn't do nothing anymore, so as best as he could, he grabbed the rat and threw it over his shoulder.

Lily was still hyperventilating when he pulled her into a big hug to calm her down.

"What is going on here James?" she asked as she backed up from him a little. She was so shaken up by the night's events that she was on the verge of tears.

Unfortunately for all involved, Sirius didn't notice how upset Lily had gotten, so he put his final plan in motion. He jumped down from the tree and ran over to James and Lily. As he shouted, "I'm done with this!" he picked up Lily and dumped her in the near-by lake.

James turned to his best mate and just stared at him with his mouth wide open.

"Um, Sirius…? What did you just do?" James asked tentatively.

"My dear Prongs, I just saved you from a life-time of commitment and misery," Sirius said proudly.

"You dumped Lily into the lake. Speaking of which-," James said, turning towards the lake to help a sopping wet Lily out of the still very chilly lake.

"S-Sirius Black," Lily said through chattering teeth, "You are a moronic p-prat. Why the hell did you throw me into the lake?"

"Well nothing else was working! What was I supposed to do?" Sirius exclaimed.

"Wait, hold on; _you_ were the one who did the snow, the acorns, the strange noises, the bra, and the dung-bombs? And the rat was…?" James asked.

"Uh, maybe," Sirius said defensively.

"Who else?" James asked.

"Who else, what?"

"Who else is with you?"

"I'm not sure I'm allowed to disclose that information," Sirius said.

"Where are they?" Lily asked, her eyes glinting dangerously.

"I am also not permitted to disclose that information," Sirius said, taking a step back from Lily.

Meanwhile, in the tree, Remus and Peter, who had crawled back up there, fearing for his life, were able to hear the conversation going on below. When they heard Lily ask where they were, they went very still.

"Be very quiet if you want to live," Remus muttered out of the corner of his mouth to Peter who had started to shake a little out of fear.

Despite Remus' warning to be silent, Peter couldn't help but shake, which caused the leaves of his branch to rustle, effectively giving away his and Remus' position.

"You've done it now," Remus muttered as he climbed down from the tree when Lily bellowed for him.

"You three," hissed Lily as her whole body shook with cold.

The three boys stood in front of her, heads bowed, the perfect picture of remorse. James stood behind his girlfriend glowering at his idiotic friends. They were in for it now, and boy was he going to enjoy this.

"I hope you're happy; you wanted to spend more time with James, you went to great lengths to ensure that you get all of his attention, and now you will, because we're through James. Obviously you can't balance friends and a girlfriend and it's not fair to your friends; they came first," said Lily with a quiet anger, the scariest type.

All four Marauders just stared in shock as Lily kissed James on the cheek and walked away quickly. Once it finally dawned on James that his girlfriend had broken up with him because his friends were jealous, he turned to them looking extremely livid.

"What have you done?!" he shouted.

Sirius, Remus and Peter all shrank back from their friend's rage. Sirius tried to provide a good reason for their actions, but his excuse died on his lips when he saw how upset James really was.

"Look, James, we… You… I..." Remus attempted.

"What? What could possibly have caused you three to… do what you did?" James asked angrily. "We were finally together. We were happy, and you go and ruin it. For what?"

"We missed you?" Peter squeaked quietly.

"We live in the same dorm; we take the same classes. How could you possibly miss me?" James asked.

"You were always with Lily. You didn't spend any time with us anymore," Remus said.

"Yeah, and if the only time we saw you was in the dorm, we got to thinking what would happen if you and Lily's relationship went farther and you got married. We thought we'd never see you," Sirius explained.

"That's ridiculous; you're my best friends. And, wait a second, who said anything about me marrying Lily?" James said, a little more calmly.

"You know, the way things are going, we figured that would be the next step. Especially since we found her bra under your pillow," said Sirius, trying and failing to keep a straight face.

"Yeah mate, I think we need to establish some dorm rules about this sort of thing," said Remus.

"Yeah! I don't want Lily to see me in my pajamas! That would be weird!" said Peter.

With a strange look in Peter's direction Sirius continued, "And we wouldn't want to walk in on anything… if you catch my drift."

"Guys, I have never brought Lily up to our dorm, and I can't believe that any of you think she would let me!" said James, almost smiling. Then he remembered what had just happened, "Not that it matters now."

"Sorry mate," said Remus sincerely. "I didn't think that she would react so badly."

"You what?" asked James. "Sirius threw her into the bloody lake to break us up! How did you think she would react to that obvious hint to take a hike?!"

"Well, she had been okay for everything else; I guess I sort of assumed she would, I don't know, laugh that off too… That, and I wasn't expecting Sirius to just run up and toss her into the lake like he did; I would've tried to stop him, I swear!" Remus finished quickly.

They were silent, until James said, "She's gone," disbelievingly.

"We're really sorry Prongs," Peter said.

"She's gone," James said again; his voice betraying the emotion that his face hid.

"Prongs, we- we'll get her back for you, somehow," Sirius vowed.

"How? She hates me now; it's no use," James said despairingly.

"Come on, let's go inside, then we'll find Lily and talk to her," Remus said, guiding a numb James towards the castle.

"Padfoot?" Peter asked as the two hung back.

"Yes Wormtail?" 

"How are we going to get her back for him?"

"I don't know, Pete, I don't know," Sirius said, following Remus and James to the castle.

Back at the castle, Remus steered James away from Lily and up to the dorm, and Sirius and Peter went over to the attractive redhead by the fire to get her back for their friend.

"Lily?" asked Sirius cautiously. "You didn't really mean what you said at the lake, did you?"

"I thought you would be jumping for joy Sirius," spat Lily. "You got what you wanted."

"But it's not what I wanted," said Sirius. "I wanted things back to the way they were before he started dating you. But now I realize that things won't ever be the same. You changed him Lily and there's nothing I or anyone else can do about that."

"Look, I'm sorry that I messed things up for you guys, but do you have to pour lemon juice in my open wounds? Just leave me alone," she said bitterly, still staring into the fire.

Sirius looked lost, so Peter decided to give mediation a try. "Lily, you changed James, but you made him a better person. And even though he may pay more attention to you than us sometimes, we all agree that we couldn't pick a better person for Prongs than you. Plus, if you were _my_ girlfriend, I would ignore my friends too," he added shyly.

Lily tore her gaze away from the fire to look kindly at Peter, who was blushing very deeply.

Sirius decided to add in his two cents as well, "Sorry Lily, I guess we just never made an effort to adjust to James having someone else in his life, but we are all willing to give it a try. We just want to see James happy and you make him happier than any prank ever has or could."

"Are you guys sure?" asked Lily as she stood up shakily.

"Sure we're sure!" said Sirius loudly. "Welcome to the family Mrs. Prongs!"

"I'll go get James!" said Peter happily.

Moments later, James had appeared on the scene.

"Okay Prongs, here's the low-down, we all promise to not complain when you choose to spend time with Lily over us, as long as you promise to help with at least one prank a week," said Remus diplomatically after being briefed with the facts.

"Deal," said James instantly.

"Good, now that that's settled, I think we'll be off," said Sirius as he clapped his hands and dragged his fellow Marauders off to the staircase where they could observed without being observed.

"Lily, look, I'm sorry about them; they're a bit not right in the head, but they're like my family, a dysfunctional family, but a family nonetheless," said James.

"I know James, I guess I just overreacted back there. You guys have been such great friends for so long, I guess I didn't want to come between you," said Lily.

"Lily, I love you, will you go out with me again?" asked James.

"Oh James," breathed Lily. "I love you too! And yes, I would love to go out with you, again."

As James and Lily met in a passionate kiss, three voices drifted from the stairway, "Can you feel the love tonight?"

**There's a calm surrender to the rush of day  
When the heat of the rolling world can be turned away  
An enchanted moment, and it sees me through  
It's enough for this restless warrior just to be with you**

And can you feel the love tonight  
It is where we are  
It's enough for this wide-eyed wanderer  
That we got this far  
And can you feel the love tonight  
How it's laid to rest  
It's enough to make kings and vagabonds  
Believe the very best

There's a time for everyone if they only learn  
That the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn  
There's a rhyme and reason to the wild outdoors  
When the heart of this star-crossed voyager beats in time with yours


End file.
